Bangladesh Border Guard held after killing Indian

Agartala, Jan 20 (IANS) Troopers of Bangladesh’s Border Guards shot dead an Indian farmer along the border with Tripura Friday, but one of them was detained by angry Indian villagers as he was trying to drag the body into his country, police here said.

“BBG troopers, while patrolling along the border, abruptly fired on the Indian villager, Shah Alam Mia, 40, killing him on the spot. The slain man was doing his personal work on the Indian territory when the BBG men fired at him,” police spokesman Nepal Das said.

He said that immediately after the firing, the BBG troopers tried to drag the body of the victim into the Bangladeshi territory. “Border villagers rushed the spot and apprehended BBG head constable Lutfur Rahaman,” the police official added.

Friday’s incident, which took place at Sonamura in western Tripura, 80 km west of Agartala, has coincided recent controversy over Border Security Force (BSF) troopers’ highhandedness in West Bengal border area where they allegedly stripped and assaulted a Bangladeshi villager earlier this week.

Tension runs high in the bordering villages in western Tripura following the killing of the Indian farmer and capture of the BBG trooper.

Senior police and BSF officers have rushed to the trouble spot and reinforcements were sent to check against escalation of the situation. BSF officials will hold a meeting with their BBG counterparts to discuss the situation.

Tripura shares a 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests, making it porous and vulnerable.